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| 2013/06/01 00:46:06瀏覽56｜回應0｜推薦2 | |
| In my last article I mentioned that Mainland China's cultural infrastractures are even better. Let me explain it by my own experiences.
One day in the middle of 80s', I entered a Chinese bookstore nestled beneath Dodgers Stadium during the period that I was staying in Los Angeles. The bookstore is not a noticeable shop looking from outside, nor a small-sized Barns & Noble from inside; it's more like a book storage in which all Chinese books just plainly categorized by different shelves. First I went to dictionary shelf, and it deeply impressed me that there contained all kinds of professional English-Chinese dictionaries, covering every branches of learning, you just name it. Then I visited "English Grammar". Again, it shocked me to find that there were not only books of general grammar or semantics, but specific books regarding eight parts of speech which were so meticulously sub-divided that I even found two specialized books throughly discussing the usuage of "SHALL" and "WILL", respectively. It had not been long subsequent to the end of Culture Revolution and the begining of "Reform $ Openness". So I believed all of the books were accomplished during the era of "people commune" and days of eating "Rice out of big pots". You may wonder how come people were willing to work hard under such an "egalitarian" society? Isn't only in a capitalist society that people are willing to work hard or to create? Not exactly. Human beings are Homo sapiens. Many of them won't waste their lives just eating and sleeping, doing nothing all day long. In case they don't have to worry about their bread and butter, though not adequate in supply, they may be able to concentrate on honing their expertises, creating or inventing new stuff, and so on. Besides sense of mission, I think, that's why Mainland China could still develop A-bombs, missiles, satellites and aforementioned tool books in a time of tumult and poverty. People in Taiwan incline to talk about "soft power" now, hinting that although we pale by comparison with Mainland China in "solid power", still we boast of something else. But do we really have the so-called "soft power"? Just ask ourselves if we've possessed the kind of cultural infrastructure I am talking here. P.S. Since I visited that bookstore, I have been using the "英漢大辭典" Mainland's edtion. I'm telling you, no kidding, it's much, much better than our "遠東" edtion. In addition, the Chinese translation to the Oxford built in the electronic dictionary I am using now is also from Mainland. |
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